Friday's Weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal had an excellent article title "The Snoop Next Door" (No transgression is too trivial to document online). Jennifer Saranow does a great job discussing web sites that have sprung up around similar concepts such as PlateWire.

I'm just slightly fussy that you didn't notice my blog on the article. Sniff. sniff - Mark I would like to assist. I have some ideas I'll email to you later. If I'm too pushy tell me to back off. Best- Kel

It's a shame that the reporter resorted to the "Big Brother" angle, instead of the community-at-large angle. When a PUBLIC entity (a registered vehicle) is driven on a PUBLIC (paid for by citizen taxation) road, and is highly visible to members of that same PUBLIC, it is NOT an "invasion of privacy" any more than the bank cameras, convenience store cameras and other security cameras are.

It would be interesting to compare PLATEWIRE to, say, neighborhood "crime alert" units, where neighbors get together to safeguard their streets and homes. Is there really a difference?